Putin said on Monday that the West “expects to quickly reverse its financial situation, cause panic in the markets, collapse of the banking system and shortages in stores.” He added that “the economic blitz strategy has failed”. The Russian leader spoke in televised statements during a video conference with top financial officials. Putin noted that “Russia has withstood unprecedented pressure,” arguing that the ruble had strengthened and that the country had recorded a record high trade surplus of $ 58 billion in the first quarter of the year. Instead, he argued, sanctions against the United States and its European allies failed to accelerate inflation and lead to a decline in living standards. Putin acknowledged a sharp rise in consumer prices in Russia, saying they had risen 17.5 percent year-on-year since April, and urged the government to adjust wages and other payments to mitigate the impact of inflation on people’s incomes.
KEY DEVELOPMENTS IN THE RUSSIA-UKRAINE WAR: – “No tradition”: Ukrainians are fighting in the steel plant of Mariupol – Russia renews strikes in the capital of Ukraine, hits other cities – Mother, grandmother cry for 15-year-old killed by Kharkiv bombing Follow all the AP stories about the Russian war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine.
OTHER DEVELOPMENTS: KIEV, Ukraine – Ukraine’s deputy prime minister has said Russia could be prosecuted for war crimes over its refusal to allow humanitarian aid to civilians trapped in the city of Mariupol. Earlier Monday, Iryna Vereshchuk had said she could not be evacuated for a second day in a row due to Russian attacks on civilian convoys. “Your refusal to open these humanitarian corridors will in the future be a reason to prosecute all those involved in war crimes,” she wrote on her Telegram and Facebook channels. Verestsuk again called on Russia to allow the safe evacuation of civilians from Mariupol, especially the Azovstal steel plant, which covers more than 11 square kilometers (4 square miles) and is full of tunnels. According to Vereshchuk, the government was negotiating the passage through Mariupol and Berdyansk, among other cities, as well as through the Luhansk region. The Luhansk government said four civilians trying to flee the area had been shot dead by Russian forces. The Russians, in turn, have accused the “neo-Nazi nationalists” in Mariupol of obstructing the evacuation of civilians from Mariupol. __ KYIV, Ukraine – Ukraine’s State Security Service released a video of a Ukrainian politician being held for treason in exchange for the evacuation of trapped civilians in Mariupol, while two Britons who surrendered to Russian forces in Mariupol appeared in the Russian media. part of an exchange. The video of Viktor Medvedchuk, the former leader of a pro-Russian opposition party with personal ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin, was released on Monday. In it, he calls on Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to consider the exchange by name. Medvenchuk was arrested last Tuesday in a special operation carried out by the State Security Service of Ukraine or the SBU. The 67-year-old oligarch escaped from house arrest several days before the outbreak of hostilities on February 24 in Ukraine. He faces up to 15 years in prison and life in prison on charges of treason and aiding and abetting a Russian-backed carbon-mediated carbon-buying organization in eastern Ukraine. The British identified themselves as Sean Pinner and Aiden Aslin. In a video, Piner asked British Prime Minister Boris Johnson to exchange. Piner had deep circles under his eyes and looked exhausted, but said the two men were being treated appropriately. Ukrainian officials have said that Kyiv wants to try Medvedchuk and eventually exchange him for Ukrainian detainees. The conditions of the videos were unclear. The two videos were released within an hour of each other.
ROME – Italian officials will embark on an energy deal trip to Africa this week as part of an effort by Prime Minister Mario Draghi to quickly reduce the country’s heavy dependence on Russian gas, but will not go because it tested positive for COVID-19. The prime minister’s office, announcing the infection, said on Monday that Draghi had no symptoms. The mission to Angola and Congo, scheduled for Wednesday and Thursday, will see the government represented by the foreign and ecological transition ministers. Italy buys almost 40% of its gas from Russia. Draghi is determined to drastically reduce this dependence over the next two or three years, largely by concluding agreements with other energy-producing countries. Draghi recently traveled to Algeria to make such an agreement as part of the strategy.
BELGRADE, Serbia – Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic has accused Ukraine’s secret services and an unknown European Union country of being behind a series of false bomb threats against Air Serbia flights to Russia. Serbia’s national carrier is the only European airline that has not been included in international sanctions against Russia over the war in Ukraine. Several of its flights to Moscow and St. Petersburg were delayed or had to return to Belgrade after anonymous bomb threats. In an interview with pro-government Pink TV late Sunday, Vuτςiτς said that “the foreign (intelligence) services of two countries are doing this. “One is an EU country and the other is Ukraine.” The pro-Russian Serb leader did not provide evidence for his claim. Other Serbian officials had claimed that the threatening e-mails had been sent either from Ukraine or Poland. Vuτςiτς said that although Air Serbia flights to Russia do not make a profit due to the frequent returns to their base in the Serbian capital, the flights will continue “according to our principle”.
MADRID – Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez has said Spain will reopen its embassy in the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, in a few days. Following similar decisions by several European neighbors, Sanchez said the reopening was “to show again the commitment of the Spanish government and the Spanish people to the Ukrainian people.” “Spain is with Ukraine and we are against (Russian President Vladimir Putin) Putin,” Sanchez said in an interview with Spanish television station Antena 3. “This is Putin’s war against what the European Union stands for.” Spain closed the embassy within hours of the Russian invasion on February 24.
KYIV, Ukraine – Lviv Mayor Andriy Sadovyi said seven people were killed and another 11, including a child, were injured by Russian blows in the western Ukrainian city. Dense black smoke appears to be rising over the city as many explosions are believed to have been caused by rockets fired, according to AP Lviv staff. Lviv Regional Governor Maksym Kozytskyy said there had been four Russian rocket attacks, three of which hit military installations and one hit a tire shop. He said emergency teams were extinguishing the fires caused by the strikes. Oleksandr Kamyshin, chairman of the Ukrainian Railways, said the strikes hit near railway facilities. He said train traffic had been restored with some delays and pledged to repair the damaged network. Lviv and the rest of western Ukraine have been less affected by the fighting than other parts of the country and are considered a relatively safe haven.
MOSCOW – The Russian military says it has hit more than 20 Ukrainian military targets with missiles. Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Lt. Gen. Igor Konashenkov said Monday that guided missile strikes had destroyed 16 military installations, including five command posts, a fuel depot, three ammunition depots and ammunition depots. . Konashenkov also said the army had fired Iskander missiles to destroy four ammunition depots and three groups of Ukrainian troops near Popasna and Kramatorsk in the east and Yampil in central Ukraine. He said the army had used artillery to hit 315 Ukrainian targets and that Russian warplanes had carried out 108 strikes to target Ukrainian troops and military equipment. Konashenkov’s allegations could not be independently verified.
LONDON – The British Ministry of Defense says that the ongoing siege of Mariupol is tying up Russian forces and slowing down their advance in view of a planned major attack in eastern Ukraine. In a daily news release, the British military says “the coordinated Ukrainian resistance has severely tested Russian forces and diverted men and equipment, slowing down Russia’s advance elsewhere.” The port of the Sea of Azov has been destroyed by Russian pounding for weeks. Britain says “large areas of infrastructure have been destroyed” and there are “significant” civilian casualties. Britain accuses Russia of using similar tactics of total war in civilian areas it has developed in Chechnya and Syria, despite Russian claims at the beginning of its invasion “that Russia would neither strike cities nor threaten the Ukrainian population.”
LVIV, Ukraine – Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Russian troops in southern Ukraine were carrying out torture and abductions and called on the public on Sunday to respond. “Torture wards are being built there,” Zelensky said in an afternoon address to the nation. “They kidnap representatives of local governments and anyone who is seen as visible in local communities.” Zelensky said humanitarian aid had been stolen, causing famine. In the occupied parts of the Kherson and Zaporizhia regions, he said, the Russians are creating autonomous states and introducing the Russian currency, the ruble. The Russian bombing of Ukraine intensified …
